Sideboard Guide

A guide for sideboarding against each Legacy archetype – explaining what to take out and bring in against those decks. Keep in mind that this is a rough tutorial and sometimes straying from these instructions is correct. Situations, game states and the opponent often call for a different plan of attack.

In the past when sideboarding for the control matchup, you couldn't grab your copies of Chrome Mox fast enough. It made sense for that time, you wanted to be on a more consistent game-plan with more resiliency – this is where the "Grinding-Station" theory came from. That said, this plan is out-dated in today's metagame. With the addition of Accumulated Knowledge, the control decks have such a strong late game as they create actual card advantage instead of theoretical card advantage with Sensei's Divining Top. This creates situations where even multiple copies of Past in Flames isn't effective against their flurry of Flusterstorm, Surgical Extraction, Force of Will, and Snapcaster Mage.

Well, how do we beat that?

By going under them! This is where our good friend Chrome Mox comes back to the equation. These control decks are actually weakest in the set-up stage of the game, meaning that fast hands with a single piece of disruption are generally good enough to defeat these menacing control decks. Other than Accumulated Knowledge, there's also Counterbalance out of Miracles and Hymn to Tourach out of the black-based control decks.

An easy and effective way of playing around these cards is to simply combo off before they're relevant. With Hymn to Tourach based control decks, one strategy I personally like is playing out my artifact mana (Chrome Mox, Lotus Petal, and Lion's Eye Diamond) and then allowing the Hymn to Tourach happen. TES is a very threat based deck with typically 7-8 "tutor effects" to draw off the top of your library, allowing a lot of "I win the game" scenarios.

The next card to fend off would be Flusterstorm, which isn't always the easiest. Against the blue & white based control decks, cards like Xantid Swarm, Hope of Ghirapur, or even Defense Grid are very effective against this, but if you don't like these cards you can always attempt to overload on discard spells. I'm personally not a big fan of going over seven to eight discard spells as you're only fighting them on one axis while they're combating you on several (the stack, graveyard, and permanents). In theory, discard spells can answer all of these, but in actual game play cards like Brainstorm or Snapcaster Mage can hide cards long enough to defeat you at an opportune time. Something like Xantid Swarm, Hope of Ghirapur, and Defense Grid can't be targeted by Flusterstorm which will create a huge impact on the game. These strategies only work agains the blue & white based control decks, against the Hymn to Tourach based control decks I don't think permanent based answers that stop counterspells are effective. When the opponent has a solid mixture of discard spells and counterspells, it makes these strategies rather embarrassing. Not to mention the fact all three cards are answered by Kolaghan's Command.

The last way to fight against these decks (blue & white based control) is to bring in answers for permanents, it doesn't matter if you're splashing green for Abrupt Decay or staying Grixis. You should bring in some sort of answer for Counterbalance, Ethersworn Canonist, and the uncommon Meddling Mage. Against the Hymn to Tourach based control decks, if they play more than two copies of Leovold, Emissary of Trest I try to sideboard in a few answers as I don't want to be forced into an Empty the Warrens line if the situation doesn't call for one. If you don't understand why, please read the "Small Creature Combo" decks section for the answer.

Recently, I've written an article on how to "combat Miracles." to give you an abbreviated version of the article, if you want to beat them you need to do it early. Because of this, you should keep Empty the Warrens in your deck as it's the easiest way to combo off quickly. Pairing this strategy with Hope of Ghirapur is my preferred way of winning this match-up.

For more information on how to beat Control decks, please check out the resources links!

In general, your main deck is set up to combat these styles of decks. You want to stay mana efficient and flexible on your game-plan, if your opponent has a fast start, maybe you should consider another option other than Ad Nauseam. I wouldn't recommend playing your discard spells into possible Daze effects, if you can discard a copy or two of Force of Will, you can plow through their soft counter magic.

Over the last few years The EPIC Storm has added one Basic land and then a second, match-ups like this are why they're here. Search for them! Often these decks try to keep you off of mana using Wasteland and Stifle. How you can fight back is to search up your basics, then play your non-basics or fetchlands into a red mana source last.

Sideboarding Concepts

As mentioned above, if you have extra copies of Empty the Warrens bring them in, this card is naturally good against them but is also another threat to hedge against Cabal Therapy. If your list has the extra copy of Chrome Mox in the sideboard, you should bring it in. It serves a dual purpose of increasing the amount of turn one copies of Empty the Warrens as well as smooth out your Ad Nauseams. This plan is good because against opponents with a lot of graveyard hate, you can just ignore the issue.

An alternative plan to sideboarding in the additional copy of Chrome Mox is to instead bring in your additional Past in Flames over Ad Nauseam. This way you have a storm resource in your deck that isn't life-total dependent against decks trying to pressure your life-total, which can be an issue with Empty the Warrens sometimes not racing Delver of Secrets fast enough.

The exception would be for Jeskai Delver variants, which tend to be uncommon, but they always seem to have hate-creatures like Ethersworn Canonist and Meddling Mage. I would bring in some sort of answer for these annoyances.

These decks attack The EPIC Storm a little differently, they attempt to lower your life-total very quickly to shut off Ad Nauseam. Outside of this and the fact they're all red, they don't have a whole lot in common.

What's the plan?

Well it depends on which deck you're facing, against Burn and Zoo, I typically prefer to cast Empty the Warrens from a high life total. I wouldn't risk an Ad Nauseam due to cards like Fireblast. Against Goblins, I think Empty the Warrens is a bit of a risk as they can make enough blockers or even put into play Goblin Sharpshooter – I would use Ad Nauseam. Against all three, Duress is lacking – while Duress has targets in each matchup, it's not exactly what you want to be spending your resources on as the cards that matter most are all creatures. The two most common and important creatures against these decks are Eidolon of the Great Revel and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. Both of these are very difficult to win through after they've resolved, which means that you should aim to combo before they can land or keep a hand with Thoughtseize(at least in game-one).

Against burn specifically, it's the only matchup in which I sideboard out Ad Nauseam for a Past in Flames package. If they're going to shut down our primary "Storm Engine", there's no reason to keep it in the deck. Stay flexible. Don't force yourself down a Past in Flames line when your deck post-board has two copies of Empty the Warrens and three Chrome Mox.

For more information on how to beat Aggro decks, please check out the resources links!

These sort of decks can be divided into two categories, those with heavy hand disruption and those with permanent disuption. The more prevalent decks would be the Thalia, Guardian of Thraben based decks like Death & Taxes or Maverick with the other decks being a little more uncommon, such as Jund or Nic Fit.

Combo off!

In the permanent based matchups, it all comes down to speed, especially in game one. On the play, you want to mulligan aggressively for hands that can generate a lot of mana paired with a "tutor effect". It's okay to plan for a second turn to combo off against most of these decks (4c Loam being the exception), meaning Ponder is a strong card when on the play. Against discard based decks, consistency based cards are exactly what you would like, so Ponder is an all-star where our own hand disruption is rather weak.

Sideboarding Concepts

On the draw for a majority of these match-ups, Ponder is the opposite of what you want to be doing. You should be trying to combo on turn one or have a Thoughtseize to discard Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. If there's a third game, you can consider boarding Ponders in if you're on the play as long as you aren't against a version of these decks with Chalice of the Void. Due to these all being "creature-based" decks, Duress is very embarrassing to have in your hand, side these out as fast as possible.

In matches where "speed is king" and our opponents aren't combo decks, additional copies of Empty the Warrens are always welcome as naturally drawing one can lead to more explosive hands without the need to mulligan aggressively.

The exact opposite of above is true for the discard decks, they generally have too many sweepers for Empty the Warrens to be effective. I would highly recommend swapping it with Tendrils of Agony, this works in two ways. It takes a weak card out of your deck and helps play around Surgical Extraction.

For more information on how to beat Midrange decks, please check out the resources links!

Elves

Against most combo decks, Empty the Warrens isn't an all-star – Elves is no exception. The issue is that they can both kill us through blockers with huge trample creatures. The strategy for TES is to be fast while not using Empty the Warrens unless you have to.

Sideboarding Concepts

Against Food Chain and Aluren, while these are combo decks, due to Leovold, Emissary of Trest you can't afford to take out Empty the Warrens. Instead, you should be looking to limit it's effectiveness. Which means siding out all copies of Ponder for answers, I recommend removal spells and if your sideboard contains them, either Defense Grid or Xantid Swarm. If you're having trouble finding more sideboard slots to remove, these decks don't play Wasteland – which means it's acceptable to sideboard out the basic Island in some circumstances.

A series of blue-based (RB Reanimator being the exception) combo decks where you need to be fast, but not use Empty the Warrens! Delightful!

Our Plan

Draw discard spells and then cast them! Well, it's a bit more complicated than that. You have to decide in each game what's more important, hitting their disruption (counterspells or discard) or their own combo pieces. The decision is all based around what you have in hand, if you think you'll be able to win in a timely manner – I'd consider the disruption. If you think you're going to need more than a turn or two, I'd aim for their own combo pieces. I mentioned not using Empty the Warrens, this is because these decks can simply go over our Goblins. Griselbrand is not only a better Batterskull against us, but will likely draw into Emrakul, the Aeon's Torn or Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite. I think the only time it's acceptable to use Empty the Warrens is when you have the lone Cabal Therapy in your graveyard to flashback using our critters.

For the Reanimator matchups, Chain of Vapor is the preferred answer for their big creatures as these decks rarely play Leyline of Sanctity. It's rather uncommon for our opponent to have two of anything in play and it's best to be mana efficient, other than that, a spell that is easier to resolve through Chancellor of the Annex is ideal. The other white flying angel we need to be concerned with is Iona, Shield of Emeria, which is another reason to bring in bounce spells!

For UB Reanimator specifically, if your sideboard contains Hope of Ghirapur or green andXantid Swarm I would strongly recommend bringing them in. They have a tough time answering a resolved insect and if they use a Force of Will on one, it makes Exhume awkward for them for the remainder of the game.

For more information on how to beat Large Creature Combo decks, please check out the resources links!

These matches are two ships passing in the night with slight interaction. You want to keep explosive hands, usually containing Lion's Eye Diamond and "tutor effects" or at the very least a piece of hand disruption or two.

Be Fast!

It's our primary plan. You can do this against Storm and High Tide by using Telemin Performance as an easy way to steal the first game. That said, post-board I wouldn't feel so confident in casting this as you'll likely hit a creature sided in for this purpose.

Playing Around Hate

The first step is search for your basic lands. This is especially crucial for playing around Wasteland, if your opponent is also packing Ghost Quarter, maybe you should consider leaving one in your deck. One way to do this is to sit on your fetchlands as long as you can.

Sideboarding Concepts

It's rather easy, bring in bounce spells! All of them! Against all of these decks, it doesn't matter if you're bouncing a Marit Lage or a Sphere of Reistance, these cards have great applications.

Once again, when you want to be winning quickly or having a first turn discard spell, Ponder is on it's way to the sideboard. It's a card for maximizing your draws and playing the long game, which isn't what we're trying to do.

For more information on how to beat Prison decks, please check out the resources links!

Playing Around Hate (Again)

More important than ever, it's important to search for your basics! Fortunately here, you don't need to worry about Ghost Quarter. What's nice about these decks (as well as Lands above) is that Chrome Mox acts as a basic land that is very difficult for our opponent to interact with.

Something you should keep in mind is that while I do like Empty the Warrens against these decks as it allows you to combo quickly, they do play between three and four copies of Fiery Confluence. Meaning, if you can play a discard spell post-Goblins, look to hit this.

Sideboarding Concepts

Once again, bounce spells are terrific because you can cast them off of Basic Island. If you're on the green splash, you should still aim to bring in Abrupt Decay. While it's not as easy to cast as Echoing Truth, you do need some sort of answer for those problematic hate cards.

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